Women began playing golf at
Bruntseld Links in 1738 and the
rst reference tolinks golf is in
1811 at Musselburgh, according
to Scottish Golf History. In the
United States, one of the earliest
golf clubs was the Shinnecock
Hills Golf Club in Southhampton,
NY, in 1891. To accommodate
the growing popularity of golf to
women, the club built a nine-hole
course just for them.
Women’s golf societies were not
formed until the last quarter of
the 19th century, according to
Golf History, when there was an
explosion of interest in women’s
golf and golf clubs. Even with the
popularity, women were often
relegated to putting greens, rules
that permitted only one club,
and restricted clothing—long
skirts and petticoats. In a Sports
Illustrated article, when Gloria
Minoprio took part in the British
Ladies Championship in 1933,
she wore scandalous trousers. Her
outt is in the British Golf Museum
34 LAKE OCONEE LIVING | SPRING 2022
in St Andrews, Scotland.
ere were certainly dierences
between men and women besides
wearing trousers; men dominated
the sport, but women were determined
to play. e dierences, as
documented by J.D. Chi in Golf
Week, lists swing speed, stance,
and angle on the ball at contact.
Other dierences are how women
may overuse muscles in their
backs and hips to get stronger
swings. To reduce injuries experts
suggest stretching. ese stretches
will increase and maintain the
exibility a golfer needs in the
shoulders, ankles, back and hips,
according to Kevin Bailey, a tness
trainer in Athens who works
with women golfers in getting
them ready for the game.
“If you don’t have exibility
and good balance, your shots on
the course will not be straight.
Balance starts from the ground
up,” Bailey says. Static balance is
the ability to hold the body in a
specic position while dynamic
Terri Moody Hancock, a two-time All-American
an the first woens golfer to coete on
the LPGA Tour, will be inducted into the Georgia
Golf Hall of Fame later this year. Courtesy of
University of Georgia Athletics
The St Andrews Ladies Golf Club via the
Scottish Golf History, scottishgolfhistory.org.
/scottishgolfhistory.org